A procedure for the microinjection of plant cells and protoplasts

Summary

This paper describes a general method suitable for the microinjection ofBrassica napus protoplasts, unicellular microspores, and multicellular microspores. By incorporating components taken from other methods, manual operations frequently involved in the microinjection of plant cells have been simplified and microinjection rates increased. The embedding of cells in agarose provides a simple alternative to the variety of sophisticated immobilization strategies devised for different plant cell types thereby reducing the manipulations often involved in the culture of microinjected cells. Use of an automatic microinjector eliminated the operation of fine control systems on manual injectors; however, precision in sample delivery was reduced. Analyses indicate that transformed tissues can be recovered from microinjected protoplasts and microspores at high frequencies.